String hopper is special type of noodle made from a mixture of different rice flours and it is widely consumed in south east Asia such as India and Sri Lanka. This string hopper is commonly made with a handheld hand-made wooden device consisting of a small cup having a cylindrical through bore extending from its top to bottom. A metal plate with a plurality of openings formed therein is mounted with screws at the bottom of the cup so that the bore forms a cylindrical well therein for holding the rice dough. The cup has two arms extending outwards from its two opposite sides. A wooden cylindrical plunger having the complementary size as the well is mounted on a carrier which also has two opposite side arms similar to the cup. The device is operated by placing the rice dough into the well of the cup and then inserting the plunger into the well and squeezing the arms of the plunger and the cup tightly towards on another by hands so as to extrude the dough through the plate with the plunger to form the string hopper. While extruding the string hopper, the operator must also move the device in a circular motion so as to deposit the string hopper onto a steam tray for its subsequent cooking. A relatively large pressure must be exerted between the plunger and the cup in the operation, which requires a high degree of dexterity and effort to carry out Furthermore, the device is unsanitary since it is difficult to clean any dough remnant from the wooden well and between the well and the metal plate. The remnant would breed harmful bacteria.
A desk top machine for making string hopper is shown in Canadian patent application No. 2,296,024 by S. Selvadurai which was published on Jul. 12, 2001. The machine shown therein provides a worm gear mechanism which has a hand-operated crank handle for driving a piston into a cylinder containing the rice dough for making the string hopper. The machine is difficult to operate since the operator must crank the handle in a rotary motion in one direction while having to move the string hopper receiving steam tray below the machine in a circular motion in another direction. The movement of two hands in circular motion in different directions is very awkward to carry out. Furthermore, since the worm gear mechanism are located directly above the cylinder and the steam tray, particles and lubricating material of the worm gear would invariably fall into the cylinder as well as onto the steam tray during the operation to contaminate the string hopper.